X Men Second Class
by QueenoftheSouthernSun
Summary: Life goes on at the mansion after Cuba, starting with two new mutants. Sam and Ivy's life begins with the newly formed X men but someone is set on changing that. Havok/OC
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Heyy, so I saw the new X-Men first class the other day. I'm slightly worried for my health due to my new obsession. If you do nothing else this week SEE THIS FILM it is my new favourite.

So this is my first proper shot at writing a story and will probably end up as a romance between my OC and (one of the boys). That is if I choose to continue with this so please review.

(This is set after First Class about 4 or 5 months.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Night was beautiful. Everything came alive at night, including the city. I could barely see the lights of the city of Cairo over the bustling crowds of people. They were flocking in to see the show, most of them tourists, taking away the magic of the night with their mindless chatter.

"Ivy, let's go! You're on soon!" someone was yelling at me.

"Yeah, yeah." I replied not really caring. We did this show most nights and earned enough money. No need to get in a panic, nothing new. Yet people still rushed in to see our small circus. I ducked in and out of the fabric of our tent, trying to get to my act. The ropes were waiting for me as I struggled to hook my ankles inside them without getting rope burn. The world slowed down, as it always did while they announced my acrobatic act to the crowds.

I could leave. I had maybe 20 seconds before the curtains pulled back and I would have to dance and twirl around these ropes. That was enough. I could untangle myself, run off stage, into the city and make a new life. Living on the streets would be better than this. I had witnessed fights, violence, gangs and hate. This bloody circus was more like a prison in disguise and once you were in, you were in for good. So why not just leave now. I didn't have time to answer my own question because the curtain opened and I had a job to do. I twirled around in the air gripping the ropes for support all the way through my acrobatic routine, like I did every other night. This life was really starting to get old.

However in the split second that followed, everything changed. I felt a tug as one of the ropes, wrapped around my ankle started to give way. I started to panic. If I fell here then that was the end of my miserable life. I was being suspended at the top of the tent. I felt the rope about to snap and acted on instinct. I reached deep inside my being and let the familiar feeling spread from straight in my heart to my ankle and down the rope. The tear in the rope fixed itself without drawing any attention from anyone in the audience. I rushed through the rest of my routine, eager to get back to the safety of the ground, my cheat going unnoticed by everyone.

Or so I thought.

"You have to be more careful"

"I know"

"If someone had seen that.."

"I know"

"We could have been chucked out of the ciru-"

"Yeah, look Sam, I get it, okay. I messed up; I put us in danger, but come on, what was I supposed to do, let myself plunge to my death?" Sam was seriously annoying me now. I'm sure he would have been ecstatic about picking up the dead body of his (practically) sister just because she was stupid enough not to use her gift when she was about to die.

"All I saying is, stop making rope come alive because last I checked it was not a normal occurrence here." He retorted. In all fairness when I told him what had happened on stage he was very worried for me but as he put in we must "blend in" Trust me when I tell you that is easy for him to say. I started walking away from him to go and sulk. I was having a bad enough evening, what with my near death experience, I did not need my big brother giving me a lecture on how to lay low.

I got maybe 5 feet away from Sam when a man leaning out of a wheelchair gives me a conspiratorial look blocks my path.

"Don't think I didn't see what you did in that show Ivy. And there is no point in lying to me, it can't be done."

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to stare at this strange man who was looking at me as if he knew every one of my secrets, the lies I have told and the promises I haven't kept. It chills me right to my heart.

"Tell me Ivy, what do you know about mutants?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This took me way too long to write (I was watching Kung Fu Panda hehe) _Italics is what Xavier is saying to someone in their head or a flashback._

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"So what exactly are you trying to tell me?" In the past 20 minutes this man had said a lot of things. Something about genetics, mutation, a school, the missile crisis in Cuba a couple of months back, and people called X men. When he was finished all I had concluded was that he could talk the hind legs off a donkey. He smiled at my question as if he had heard it a million times.

"I can help you, and your brother, we're the same." He stated very simply.

I'd had enough. I wasn't going to stand here and have some random man tell me that he is the same as me. He clearly had a lot of money that much was obvious by his silver watch and leather shoes; I imagined that his family owned a mansion somewhere. I had an old ring that belonged to my mother, a pair of worn boots, a somewhat controlling brother and I lived with a crappy circus.

Yeah we were the same.

"I'm done." I said while storming back to my brother and away from that man, Xavier, I think his name was.

_What kind of life do you think you're walking back to?_

I stopped dead in my tracks at the voice in my head. That can't be him. I turned around, frantically looking for the man in the wheelchair but he was gone.

"Are you alright? Who was that guy back there?" Sam was questioning.

"Shh, can't you here that voice?

_He won't be able to hear me, Ivy that's the great thing about my mutation, I control it._

"Okay, fine, I think you have proven your point."

"Who the hell are you talking to Ivy?" Part of me was aware that I was probably really scaring Sam who could only hear my half of the conversation.

_You could have a new life, there are people like us at my school, and we look after each other. You have to trust me._

I looked at Sam, we had been together for years, and I trusted him to keep us safe.

_Flashback_

_The sun was bearing down us as we trudged through the city. Sam was being very quiet, I could tell that he having an internal battle over something._

"_We live in a world that hates us sis."_

_I wasn't stupid, Sam and I were different, and we only had each other, but this world could not entirely be evil._

"_I'll take care of us; we'll have to hide but…"_

"_As long as we're safe." I finished. I knew Sam and he always assumed the worst. He wouldn't trust anyone with our secret for good reason, as he put it. _

_I never could bring myself to believe it though, that the whole world was as big and bad as he said. There had to be people like us who understood, who were hiding, like us._

_End Flashback._

When you have lived the life that we had, trust was a hard thing to come across and an even harder thing to give.

So why was saying yes to Xavier so easy?

Please Review


	3. Chapter 3

Heyy so here's chapter 3. I was wondering what good X men names there could be for Sam and Ivy. Sam's mutation is that he can turn invisible and Ivy can control plants and earth. Any ideas?

Please review. I am getting lots of hits but no reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

I drifted in and out of sleep on the plane journey to Xavier's home. My exhaustion was due to a colossal argument with Sam. Needless to say he wasn't too thrilled at the idea of traveling halfway around the world with no real knowledge of where we were going.

_Flashback_

"_Let me get this straight. You are saying that we are following a guy who may or may not be completely insane to a mansion to join his group of mutants."_

"_In a nutshell …. yeah." I said a bit sheepishly. I knew that Sam wasn't just going to agree to this, I had dropped the bombshell not 5 minutes ago. _

"_You are mad; I mean you have actually lost your mind!" He was really raising his voice now. Sam rarely shouted; he didn't need to. His voice held natural authority that not many people questioned. Even I didn't usually challenge his judgement, but this time I knew my instinct was right._

"_Look I know this is probably the most random thing I have ever come out with. But just once, you have to trust me, and this is our way out of here." I was pleading now. I couldn't just let an opportunity like this pass us by. _

_He looked as he was starting to protest but a terrified look came over his face. I mentally thanked the professor and left the rest of the explaining to him. _

_End Flashback_

"Ivy, wake up we're here." Sam was shaking me awake with a very tight expression on his face. I felt the need to apologize to him for uprooting our (somewhat) familiar existence in one night. He deserved to feel safe and happy. I just hoped that Charles could deliver on that front.

The car journey was intense to say the least. I started to wonder what this place would be like and more importantly who these people were. We came down a long driveway surrounded by bushes and trees. It looked as if Charles was trying to make sure that no one found his hideaway of mutants. I'll have to ask him about it later. The trees parted and standing there was the biggest house I had ever seen. It looked more like a castle than anything else, with huge stone walls, balconies and huge glass windows. There was lush countryside as far as you could see and beautiful forests and gardens. It looked like a child's story book come to life and I half expected a fairy-tale princess to come walking down the steps with her glass slippers. Instead of the princess 3 guys came walking out of the main door with surprised looks on their faces.

"Your house is so beautiful." I murmured to Charles. I didn't want to speak too loudly, I felt as if it would shatter the illusion of the whole scene. Sam looked in appreciation at the place. I gave him a look that said I told you so.

"Thank you Ivy, my sister and I grew up in this house, it's been in my family for years, I hope you'll like it." A strange look ghosted across his features, as if he was remembering something that he had tried very hard to forget. However it was gone as soon as it came and the three strangers had reached us.

"Ah, hello boys, I would like to introduce you to our new arrivals, this is Sam and Ivy." Charles gave the boys a calculating look as if to measure their reactions to us.

A boy who I guessed was about a year younger than me looked as he had never seen a female in his life. He was about my height with floppy ginger hair and a wide smile.

"Hi I'm Sean or Banshee, whichever you like." He said. It sounded as if he was trying to make his voice sound an octave lower as he was shaking my hand. He held on about 5 seconds too long and I had to pull my hand out of his grasp. Any conversation I have with him is going to be awkward. The next guy looked older than me with blond hair and very lonely blue eyes. He walked up to me with curiosity on his face and was probably one of the hottest guys I had ever seen. I felt a heat spreading on my face when he shook my hand and I wondered why I was reacting like this. It wasn't like me to have such a girly reaction to a guy.

"My names Alex, they call me Havoc as well, nice to meet you." He smiled at me and I think my knees almost gave out. Part of my brain wondered why they all had two names but that question was answered by the last guy. He was at least 2 ft. taller than everyone else and was completely, from head to toe blue. He had some fur on his face and resembled a werewolf a bit. Though his appearance was shocking I couldn't look past his warm smile. Looking at his smile I saw a person, not a mutant. Before, when Charles was explaining mutation to me it was just a word. It had no meaning, it wasn't real. But this stranger, staring at me, was the most real thing I had ever seen and it dawned on me that everything Charles had said to me and Sam was the truth.

"My name is Hank, or Beast, I uh hope you like it here." He seemed to be expecting me to react in some shocked way. But I shook his hand and said thanks.

Charles, who seemed pleased with our introductions ushered us up the stone steps and into something completely unknown.


	4. Chapter 4

Heyy, so chapter 4. Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed/added to alerts/added to favourites, this story or dream catcher. It really meant a lot to me. I wrote this while listening to first love by Adele. This is longest chapter I have done so far, and it is steadily getting longer through this A/N so I'll just shut up.

Please read and review. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I felt tiny in this place. Huge staircases and corridors spiralled up into the ceiling and glass windows reflected a very lost looking girl back at me. I didn't know what to feel in here, I was used to long nights and hard days in the sweltering heat. Westchester was calm; there was no need to rush or panic here. I was completely thrown off. We entered some kind of elevator for Charles and his wheelchair and it opened onto another endless corridor. There were two doors on either side of the corridor and another staircase leading to what I presumed was the living room.

"So" Charles began "This is where you will be sleeping Ivy" he gestured to the door on the right side.

"Sean is just down the corridor, and Alex and Sam will be in the corridor just below you." He was being very careful with me; I guessed that he was trying not to send me into a panic over the change in scenery.

"Um okay…" I replied uncertainly. I was very uncomfortable about being separated from Sam. I trusted these people, Charles especially, but Sam has been next to me for most of my life. I was anxious to be separated now.

"Well, I just show Sam to his room then." We all split ways, Sean to his room, me to my own and everyone else downstairs. I pushed open the door, and stepped in. It was a shock to have a room of this size all to myself after years living somewhere where the next person was always only 2 ft. from you. The bed was exactly opposite to the door with a window taking up most of the west wall. A bathroom was to my left and the window opened onto a small balcony. I never had anything so luxury in all my life. My little bag of things felt quite inadequate in this big room. I walked to my bathroom with dazed steps. That is what this whole house was to me, a daze. None of it felt real to me. I washed my face and took a look in the mirror. My curly red hair was limp to my waist and I was paler than usual with a dusting of freckles across my face. I had big green eyes that maybe used to hold some sparkle, but I never knew that sparkle. I had a feeling that had been taken away from me a long time ago along with any resemblance of a life. I walked away from the depressing site in the mirror and busied myself with unpacking (not that it would take very long). Needless to say I didn't have much in the way of possessions, back in the circus; anything of remote value was gone pretty quickly. I hid anything I had underneath a floorboard in my cabin on the train I shared with Sam. I started to unpack my worn out rucksack and took out all the clothes I had, a couple of books, my notebook for drawing in, my music box and a pocket knife Sam had managed to get for me – I had never asked him where from. I put the on the shelf in my new room and sat on the bed, taking it all in.

I didn't really have a plan. When I had agreed to Charles's offer I had only thought about leaving, not where we were going. Now we were here what was I supposed to do? Pretend to know why I was here? My thoughts were interrupted by Charles who knocked on my door.

"I just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay." He said. He was hiding something from me; ever since we got here he had been treading on eggshells around Sam and me.

"You want to make sure I don't run away, don't you." I said. I realised it came out sounding a bit like an accusation, and regretted it.

"You don't have to be afraid of this place Ivy. I brought you here so you would have a better life, so you could control you mutation, not to make you feel trapped." I noticed that he did not actually answer my question but I let it slide.

"Professor, I do trust you and your judgement, but you have to understand, this is just one big place to me, and it has as little meaning to me as the place I was before." I admitted. I never used the word home when talking about that circus. It wasn't home, that was something I had never experienced and I doubted I would find it here. Sam once told me that you carry home with you; I barely carried anything with me so that saying was pretty pointless. I could see Charles trying to understand me, he clearly was never in the same situation, but I appreciated his efforts.

"I made it my job to teach you to know your mutation, Ivy. I promise that to everyone. By knowing that part of yourself you will be part of something much bigger than yourself here. Give it some time, you'll see." I was falling into the promise in his eyes. He meant every word he said and that was reassuring.

"Why don't you get changed and come downstairs, everyone is waiting for you in the games room." He suggested, trying to take my mind of things.

"Okay then." I agreed. I changed into loose pants and a shirt that was given to me by Charles. If I was being honest with myself, I wanted to talk to the rest of the mutants. They seemed nice, and I was going to be spending a lot of time with them in the future, I might as well get to know them now. I walked down the staircase and managed (somehow) to find my way to the games room. The boys were lounging on three couches with music playing loudly in the background. There was what looked like some kind of game machine in the corner and a small TV on one side. All the boys turned to look at me when I entered, Sam got up and gave me a hug, he whispered in my ear asking if I was okay, I didn't really have time to answer.

"So how do you like the house?" Hank asked me, trying to make conversation.

"It's different, but really lovely." I replied more out of politeness than anything else. Sean and Alex went back to their conversation and Hank and Sam started talking about something called cerebro. I added to the conversation every now and then, barely paying attention. I walked over to the game thing in the corner; it looked pretty complex and had lots of buttons and levers.

"You can play on it if you want." A voice said behind me. I turned around and was met with a half-smile that made me heart do some kind of somersault-thingy.

"Uh, what is it?" I said, finally finding my voice and feeling rather stupid as Alex seemed to be shocked that I didn't know what it was.

"Oh it's really easy," He ran me over the basics of how to play it, he called it pinball, I think. We fell into an easy silence, in front of the game. He started to lean in so as to see the game better, it looked to me as if he stayed a couple of seconds too long, but I said to myself it was just my imagination running away with me. After the game was done we all sat down and spent the rest of the night talking about nothing really, but it was the most important thing to me. To be able to sit there leaning into my brothers side, talking the night away, and the strangest thing happened, I started to let myself believe what Charles had said to me.


	5. Chapter 5

Heyy, thank you to everyone who reviewed Dream catcher and to LittleCutie for giving me my first review for this story, you made my day and this chapter is dedicated to you.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Please read & review xxx

I was awoken by the sound of voices arguing. Groaning, I pulled myself out of bed and my feet hit the cold floor. I was still jet lagged from the flight over here, and a bunch of boys fighting was not needed at 9 am. I almost fell down the stairs twice trying to get to the kitchen and nearly tripped into the door but I managed to catch myself before I made impact. Someone was going to pay for waking me up early. I was pulled out of internal death threats when I heard hushed voices behind the door.

"You have been acting weird around those two, what is going on?" one voice questioned, it sounded like Alex.

"Nothing, look, they are the first new people to come here, I just want to make sure they are okay." Charles's voice was whispering. I was much more interested now. Why was Alex questioning Charles's behaviour and what did it have to do with Sam and me?

"There is something you are not telling us Charles, this hasn't got anything to do with Magneto does it?" Alex asked. I had no idea who or what Magneto was or what it had to do with me but Alex seemed to be hesitant to mention it.

"No, Alex, listen you shouldn't be worrying yourself over this, we have a lot of work to be doing and I want to see Sam and Ivy use their mutation." Charles was just a little too quick to reply to that but Alex seemed somewhat satisfied with the answer so he dropped it. I decided to make my entrance then. I waked into the kitchen and started to fix myself some cereal.

"Ah, good morning, Ivy, did you sleep well?" Charles voice seemed too loud to me and I slightly flinched.

"Yes fine thanks." I was in no state for elaborate answers; Alex saw this and just gave me a friendly nod. I was suddenly very aware of my tight strappy pyjama top and the state of my messy hair. However by the time I had thought of a load of clever things to say to him he had already walked into the dining room. I remembered last night and how close his face was to mine, if he had just lent in a bit further….

"I wanted to start some training today if you're up for it." Charles's voice brought me back down to earth and away from my day dream. His words sent a shot of anxiousness through me. I had never shown anyone apart from Sam my power and to openly show people it felt risky. Against my better judgment I agreed to his proposal.

I ran into Sam in the garden, he was kicking around a football with Hank.

"So Charles wants to see our mutations later." I told him. He wasn't really looking in my eyes; I knew there was something wrong.

"What's wrong Sam, you have been off with me since we left." I said after a long pause. I wasn't one to not express what I thought especially with Sam.

"Nothing's wrong." He lied very poorly. I felt guilty. I knew it was my fault that we had been thrown into a completely new life. I had probably really scared Sam; we had always thought we were pretty much alone. For me to drag us to a strange mansion in the middle of nowhere was a bit unexpected.

I was never good at apologizing to people. Most of my life I had never needed to, I had never really done anything wrong. Weakness was something that I could never let myself show, if I did then people would have taken advantage of it. But Sam deserved better from me than my stupid pride. I knew I had to suck it up and say something to him.

"Look, I didn't know what to expect from this place, and neither did you but I said you could trust me and we've done pretty well so far. I never meant to scare or hurt you but I had to get us out of that place. You can hate me, if you want but at least I know you are happy here, and that is definitely a change. I'm sorry for doing this to us but we have a chance here." I finished it on big breath of air; it cleared out all my worries and even if Sam didn't forgive me, I knew I had done the right thing.

"I not mad at you for that sis." Sam admitted, He looked almost shocked that I thought this.

"Then what Sam, because you have been moody with me for days and I have not got the first clue why!" I had started to raise my voice at him.

"Because I didn't keep my promise." He said in a big rush. He looked at me right in the eyes. I felt like he was looking right through me. When I didn't say anything, he continued.

"I promised you I would keep us safe, I didn't. Yeah I found a place to live for us but for five years you were miserable. We weren't safe there let alone happy. I tried to give you a better life and I couldn't. In five minutes you gave us a life a million times better than the one I gave us in five years." He looked utterly defeated. My brother had never looked so weak. Sam had always been strong in my life, like a rock, unwavering. To see him this vulnerable was strange.

"I never meant to make you feel that you had failed me in any way. You kept us together all my life that was enough for me. You don't owe me anything." I said with a lot more strength than I thought I had at the moment. I pulled him into a hug and we stood there. For a second I didn't care where we were, circus or mansion. I was safe.

"So how are we supposed to do this?" Sam asked, uncertainly. We were all in the drawing room sitting around the table. I had been occupying myself with finding imaginary patterns in the wallpaper, trying not to think about the terrifying prospect of showing my mutation. I wasn't really ashamed of it, I had always thought of it as mysterious, almost magical. To be able to change the world around you without touching a thing is quite something to experience. But more than that, it made me who I was. I had always revelled in being unique and different from the giant crowds of Cairo. To know that you could do things no one else could dream of was something that took a while to wrap my head around. However I had never really let loose with it and done anything extravagant with my mutation and I was afraid of what I would find.

Sam was leaning into the conversation, trying and failing to hide his excitement. He had always thought of his mutation as the best part about him. Sam was always a bit of a show off, no matter how much he denied it, he loved a challenge. Sean had shown us his power a few moments ago and shattered my coke bottle. When Charles announced that it was Alex's turn next I tuned in. I couldn't imagine what his power could be and why on earth it would earn him the name Havok. He instructed us to all go by the window and he stood on the balcony. Huge red rings swirled around his body and into a tree near the edge of the woods. That tree was cut clear in half. The whole thing was hypnotising. Those swirling lights were so beautiful and yet destroyed a full grown tree and left destruction in its path. As he sat down everyone applauded and I found myself clapping too. He loved the attention, I could tell. He looked at Sam.

"Your turn."

"I thought we agreed Ivy was next." Sean said, everyone looked at Sean and then back at Sam but he was gone.

"What the hell." Sean looked beyond shocked. At that point Sam materialised again, leaning on Sean's shoulder. I don't think I have ever seen a person jump that high before.

"Sean you look like you've seen a ghost." I said through my laughter at his reaction. Alex was on the floor laughing at Sean's girly scream and Sean had turned bright red.

"Hey how about that for a name, Ghost." Sam asked. Everyone seemed to considering it before concluding that would be his new name. Sam was having a great time laughing and joking with the rest of the boys. He looked like he fit in here, it brought to peace with my decision to take us here.

"Ivy, I've been dying to know what you can do." Alex said as he turned to me. His eyes had a mischievous spark to them and it made me suddenly very bold. Everyone had turned to look at me expectantly. I thought I might as well have fun with this.

I sat very calmly on the couch with my legs crossed and smirk leaking across my face. I felt a tug deep in my heart and energy flowing through my veins and in every drop of blood in my body. It went down into the floorboards, along the wood into the ground; I reached it further out and felt it come back to me. After about five seconds a lone vine began climbing under the door and up the wall, followed by another and another. Plants and leaves were stretching along the walls like a complex tapestry only I knew. It spilled onto the floor and worked its way around the armchairs and furniture while the boys looked on speechless. I smiled knowing I impressed them. Flowers began to bloom along the vines. Deep red roses, the colour of blood burst into life along the living room. I decided I had shocked them enough and I stopped turning Charles's drawing room into the Amazon rainforest. Every mouth was hanging wide open, even Sam.

"Look on the balcony." I instructed. They all walked outside where the tree that Alex had destroyed was standing tall and proud, at least 5 feet taller. They all burst into applause while walking back in. I saw Alex's hand bush against a rose and one of his fingers started bleeding from the prick. He picked the rose and handed it to me, giving me a dazzling smile.

"I have your new name, Ivy, its Thorn."


	6. Chapter 6

Heyy so I will be able to update more in a week when schools out (Wohoooo!)

Disclaimer: don't own

Please r&r

Peace out xx

_I can't see._

_Huge blotches cover the light, closing in on me. I reach out to touch it and can't feel anything. No life, no spark, nothing. I'm not thinking so I run towards all the light. Until I realise that the dark blotches, aren't dark at all. They're green, brilliant, emerald green. Huge plants grow out, covering my sight, blinding me with their leaves. It doesn't hurt, it just feels different. _

_Until I can't breathe._

_They aren't just blocking my sight, they're blocking my air. The oxygen is being suffocated out of me; my own power has turned on me and I'm going to die. Panic rises in my throat and is stolen by the vegetation as I wait for the last breath of precious air to leave me on the forest floor to my fate._

I opened my eyes to face the rich mahogany of my bedside table. People were in the kitchen making breakfast, I assumed, and training started this morning. I got up and walked to the bathroom passing the rose from yesterday, in a vase on my table. I looked at it, memories of the dream coming back to me. It was real, the helplessness, the fear, but most of all the feeling that it was gone. That my mutation had left me and I was being killed by the earth that I had once controlled. I reached my hand out towards the rose, not touching it. To my intense relief the petals slowly fluttered to the ground before new, fresh ones blossomed. I felt silly for ever doubting myself; it was only my imagination running wild. I had a shower to shake off the dream and made my way downstairs.

The spring air was biting at my face as I pulled myself into a run around the house. I had decided to start running, trying to build up my muscle and my mind. That little trick I had shown everyone last night had tired me out hugely. I had realised that I needed to learn how to get better at handling my mutation. At the moment it was consuming my energy and eating away at my mind. Charles had told me to start training physically and mentally, eventually my power would be under my control. He failed to mention how much I would hate running. After my third lap of the mansion I gave up and settled for walking instead. The grounds were beautiful. So much life in the trees and plants, concealing our house perfectly.

I stumbled across the gravel in my new trainers and clothes (I had no idea where they had come from) and came across something. There was a metal trap door leading into what I guessed was the basement. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled it to find that it was open. Some metal steps led down into an empty floor with two doors leading to somewhere else and a green light and a red light above the door. Everything was made completely out of metal and it looked as if not even a bulldozer could get through the wall. The red flashed on and I peeked through a nearly entirely blacked out window in the door. A figure, which looked like Alex judging by the red rings that followed him was standing in line with doorway and shooting his mutation at something. He stopped firing and the green light above the doorway flashed on. I took this as a sign that it was safe to go in. I pulled open the door with great force and he turned and looked at me.

There always seemed to be something different about Alex, and that was a hard thing to achieve when you live with someone who is blue and furry. Besides the fact that he was utterly melt-at-the-knees-hot his eyes held something back. It was as if he had forgotten something important a long time ago and has given up trying to remember what it was.

"Hey, Thorn." He said with a lopsided smile. It made my heart beat faster. I was going to have to sort out this ridiculous reaction I had whenever he spoke.

"Ah, I'm glad to hear the new name is catching on." I said a bit sarcastically. In truth, I loved that name; I would just prefer to be known as Ivy rather than Thorn.

"Just wait a couple of weeks and people will forget your real name." He joked.

"Great, I guess I'm stuck with calling you Havok then." I retorted. He chuckled slightly at me.

"Fair point, Ivy." He said with emphasis on my name. I continued to wonder what he was doing in what looked like a war bunker.

"So why are you practising in here?" I asked.

"It's safest in here. Charles's family had this built in case of a war." He answered while we walked back out the door and up the stairs.

"I thought you could control your power well." I said. I realised I was being a bit intrusive with my line of questioning. He gave me a sideways smile.

"I can, it just takes a lot of focus. I'm sure you can't just make an entire forest grow whenever you feel like it." He seemed a bit annoyed at the fact that he can't control it all the time.

"No, I can't, it's frustrating to not be able to when everyone else can just use their mutations as they please." I confessed. I don't know why I was suddenly being so honest with him. I didn't know him that well. However he looked as if he was in the same boat as me, having a part of you that can snap at any point. We ended up sitting on a low wall by the basement entrance. Part of my brain realised I was actually having a conversation with him but the other part was silenced by the solemn tone of the conversation. It was good to know someone felt the same way as you. We had been quiet for a while but a question was nagging at my brain.

"Where were you before you came here?" He looked at me very strangely, as if I was a bird that he didn't want to frighten off.

"I was in prison." He said bluntly. I couldn't help it, I flinched away. We looked at each other with a strange mix of respect and fear.

"I didn't mean to do anything, I was angry at someone and my power got out of control." He said. He looked as if he had this conversation before, but never got this far because people would run away at the last point. I however was fascinated. I wouldn't really have pinned him as the type to get to prison and I couldn't find it in myself to blame that much. You sometimes just can't control it.

"What about you? You and Sam came together, are you…" I didn't realise what he meant until he gave me a look. I recoiled at the idea.

"No, God, no, um, he is like my brother, we have been traveling together for 6 years." I said in a rush, eager to get the image out of my head.

"Oh, I just thought…..never mind, so Charles says you lived with a circus." He quickly changed the subject.

"Yeah." Was all I said. I did not want to bring it up, not when I was trying to forget it. Alex seemed to get this and let it go. I suddenly thought of a question that I was meaning to ask him.

"Alex, who was Magneto?" I asked. He did not want to say, that much was clear on his face. He thought very hard about it and finally answered.

"He was a friend."


	7. Chapter 7

Two weeks flew past. No one bothered to mention that we didn't really know what we were doing or why we were here. I had still not managed to get anything more out of Alex about Magneto, but he was being nice to me, I wasn't going to push it. We had come up with an unspoken routine for each day. It was a way to see each other but not make it seem as if there was anything going on. We would wake up each morning, sit down opposite each other for breakfast, go get ready, I would "run into him" in the bunker where he would practice and he would wait for me while I went on a run.

Beside my obvious attraction to his looks, there was something quite rebellious about him. As if he was trying to tell the world to leave him alone but I couldn't stay away, and part of me secretly liked to hope that he wanted me there. However this little dance that we did around each other each day was getting on my nerves. I knew he liked me as a friend or he wouldn't be keeping up his side of the little game we were playing, but as anything more than that, I wasn't sure.

So today would be the day. I was going to talk to him and see if anything happened. Of course, this is what said to myself. Despite of where I spent a lot of my life I wasn't very brave. Sure, I would speak my mind if I wanted to, but Alex was a friend, and I didn't want that to change. That was why I went looking around the mansion for him and instead ran into Charles.

"Hey, Ivy, how are you today?" He asked. That was what I loved about Charles. He cared for us, genuinely, and would always show it.

"I'm fine Charles, I was just looking for the boys, have you seen them?" Charles gave me a strange look at that point. I knew he would never read our minds unless he absolutely had to but there was still something off about the way he was looking at me.

"Um no, I sent them off to do some shopping, you would think in a house with four guys in it one of us would know how to cook." He laughed. I had to agree with him there. I had been roped into trying a lasagna that Sean and Hank made. All I can say is that no person should be subjected to that kind of torture.

"Well if you like I could make dinner tonight." I offered. At least it would be better than whatever they could come up with.

"That would be great thank you Ivy." He seemed genuinely relieved. "May I ask why you were looking for the boys?" He seemed to be in a curious mood so I decided to be honest.

"I was going to do some training, I was wondering if one of them wanted to come along." I said. I didn't specify that it was Alex I was looking for; I didn't want Charles getting the wrong idea.

"Oh okay." He gave me a look that said "You're not fooling anyone" I decided to quickly get out of there, before he asked me anything more. I skipped up the main stairs and took a left turn. I walked down a corridor that I had been down maybe twice in the two weeks I have been here, with a lot on my mind. If Charles found out that I like Alex, my whole friendship with him would be ruined. It scared me a little bit, thinking about the amount of information that must go through that man through his mutation. I briefly wondered if Charles was ever like us in his life. If he was ever alone, scared or maybe even homeless.

It was then that I came across a door which I didn't think I had ever noticed before. I pushed against the heavy wood and was shocked with what I found. There were drawings hanging on the wall, books on the shelf, toys in the boxes. This room was completely lived in; someone had made their life in this room. Whoever had lived here was clearly a girl, I could tell by the girly hints of pink in the wallpaper and pictures, and had not lived here for a while. Charles had never mentioned that a girl had once lived in this house. I always assumed that after Cuba, it was just him and the boys, there never seemed to be a female presence in the house ever. But this room had belonged to a little girl and Charles wouldn't just forget to mention that to me and Sam. However this room was felt empty, as if it was a room filled with lost promises and sadness. It was like a huge hole in the house, but one that the rest of the house chose to ignore. I didn't want to disturb this place so I made for the door. I closed it behind me and made sure I forgot it was there.

_Alex's point of view._

The car bumped into the driveway courtesy of Hank's stupid driving. I said I should take the wheel but no, he could do it just fine. We pulled out the shopping bags from the boot and carried them inside to Charles. I hope he had an idea for the food because I certainly wasn't cooking.

"Ah hey boys, thanks for getting that." Charles greeted us as we walked into the kitchen.

"No problem Charles, is Ivy around?" Sam asked. I waited listening for the answer. I was meant to meet Ivy for training as usual but today I had to miss out. It was funny that I saw her every day and yet if I missed her one day, I would feel at a loss.

"Yeah, she's gone practising in the garden, can you tell her to stop turning it into a jungle." He called out; I had to laugh at this. It was true that she could do some incredible things with her power. I quietly slipped out of the kitchen to see her. She was now talking to Sam about something while lifting a chunk of rock from the earth. I envied that about Sam. He was a great guy and I was fast becoming one of his friends but he had her. Ivy would always be the most important thing to Sam, even if he found a girlfriend, and even if Ivy had a boyfriend, she would always be Sam's. I tried not to think that it could be me. I knew that there was trouble ahead of us from Magneto and going after her was not the best idea at the minute. Not to mention Charles and Sam would kill me. However, when she looked at me or gave me one of her smiles, thoughts of us together entered my mind, unwelcome. She finished talking to Sam and he left. I took this as my cue to go up to her.

"Hey Ivy." I said. She turned around to face me. She was wearing a top that clung _very_ tightly to her figure and loose pants; it took quite a bit of effort to look at her face.

"Hey, I was wondering where you went, I wanted to do some practice." She replied. I felt a bit annoyed that I had missed a chance to talk to her.

"Well you seem to be doing fine on your own." I said referring to the rock floating six feet above the ground.

"Well thanks." She said a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. She was far too modest, she was easily the most powerful mutant I had ever seen (save for Charles and Magneto). She turned back to facing the earth and I properly looked at her. She was beautiful, there was no denying it. She had long flame-like hair that flowed down her back and green eyes that looked as if they could see right to your soul. But more than that, she was a beautiful person. She had such care for the people she loved and yet she was one of the strongest people I had met. I didn't know much about her life before us and frankly, I didn't want to. However she still had the courage to leave all that behind to live here. She turned and gave me a smile. A soft, calming stunning smile. It was in that moment I decided. I would make a move today. Yet that thought terrified me to my core, I didn't want to mess it up. She mumbled something about having a shower and I started to walk back inside.

"You shouldn't go after her you know." Charles gave me a knowing look from inside the house.

"What do you mean?" I asked, he was a mind reader; there was no point in lying.

"You can't imagine how hard her last life was like, don't make this one any harder than it has to be." He said in a very serious voice. Only occasionally would Charles use that voice with us, and when he did we knew to listen to him. However I decided to push further.

"Why do you think I'm going to make her life harder?" I said stubbornly. He sighed, as if the answer was obvious.

"Because, Alex, if she has to decide whether to leave or not she shouldn't be influenced by you." He turned to me. I started to panic then. Why would she leave? She was happy here wasn't she?

"But there is no reason for her to leave is there, so there is no problem." I said trying to end the conversation. I started to walk away, back into the house when the thought hit me. Charles said if she has to _decide_. The last two times someone wanted to leave this place it was at the hands of someone else. I ran back to Charles, finally understanding.

"Your saying this because of Magneto aren't you." He didn't even look at me so I carried on.

"You think he is going to take her away because she is powerful, just like he did with Raven." He tensed up and I knew I had hit a nerve. Raven was a touchy subject with everyone and we never mentioned her, least of all to Charles. I wasn't even sure if Ivy knew about her.

However there was something that was still nagging on my brain. You don't just happen across a mutant with the potential that Ivy had, especially when she was with another powerful mutant.

Then it hit me. The reason why she was here.

"Oh my god, that is why she is here, isn't it." I accused "You wanted to get to her and Sam before Magneto did. You know it's only a matter of time before he starts recruiting again and you had to get there first, in case Magneto went found them and used them, which he would have." I was shocked. Charles was always the kind one. He was always thinking about our welfare before his inevitable fight with Erik. The fact that he took two mutants across the world and trained them just so they could aid his cause was hard to get my head around. Charles had gone very quiet and had a guilty expression on his face.

"Listen Alex, if she finds out, then she would run off and take Sam with her. This isn't about me or Raven or even Erik, they just have to stay here. And that will be a lot easier if she wasn't emotionally attached to you, if something went wrong. Just promise me you won't say anything. They deserve a life here." He was actually pleading with me, which was new. Even though I was completely against his motives, it brought her here. So I wasn't about to run off and tell her, but I couldn't agree to the second request.

"I won't tell her the truth Charles. But you can't tell me not to see her." I felt my confidence come back to me. I strode out of the room ignoring Charles's eyes on my back and went to find Ivy. She had gone to have her shower and was probably finished by now and I found her in the games room by the pinball machine.

"Hey Alex, what's up?" She asked. She had that glint in her green eyes that she got when she was happy, her hair was tied up in a messy bun and she had tilted her head to the side. She was beautiful.

I didn't think about it. I marched over to her, managed to catch a surprised look on her face and pulled her into a kiss.

_Somewhere else_

There was a clank of heels on the polished wood floor. It was annoying, I don't understand why Emma insisted on wearing stilettoes all the time, especially when I was trying to concentrate.

"What is it Frost?" I asked harshly. I didn't want to deal with her this evening.

"Well someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of bed." She said, trying to be clever, and then she paused, as if thinking about what she wanted to say carefully.

"There is something strange going on at Xavier's mansion, some kind of energy surge. It's like there is more power coming from it." This got my attention. There was no way it could be cerebro, it wasn't rebuilt. Emma answered my question for me.

"I think there are new mutants there, powerful ones at that, we should go and see." For the first time I think ever, I found myself agreeing with her.

"Get the others; we'll go pay a visit to the professor."

Sooooo , sorry for the long wait, school and that but, it's officially my holiday (cue summer music!) This is my longest chapter yet and I tried to put in different points of view, hopefully it worked. The next chapter will be a bit more intense but maybe shorter. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Please read and review

Peace out xxx


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: So this by far the longest chapter yet, I hope you like it.

So, my dad took my brother and I to this big stately home, you know, the kind where you have to go on a guided tour, and it reminded me so much of the Xavier mansion. It really helped me to write this chapter. So if you ever have writers block, you know where to go Sorry I'm starting to ramble, I'll just shut up.

Please r&r xx

Disclaimer: this is getting kinda old now. I don't own.

_Alex's point of view__._

"Hand it over!"

"Get off, I was here first!"

"I don't care; you can't just decide what to..."

"And you can't just walk in whenever you please!"

The yelling could be heard throughout the entire house and it seemed to be coming from the living room. The noise was followed by a smack and an oomph sound. I turned the corner and walked in to find Sean and Ivy having a tug of war over the television, both trying to switch channels against the others will. It seemed that Ivy had the upper hand and I guessed that hit had come from her. Sean looked at me as I came in.

"Finally Alex, can you tell her to stop switching the channels." He looked at me for back up.

"You're getting beat up by a girl Banshee and you think I am going to help." I laughed to him, he got himself into this, he can get himself out. Ivy turned at the sound of my voice and lost the battle with Banshee because of it. Her face started to go pink under the freckles and an embarrassed smile crept over her face. I hadn't seen her since I kissed her yesterday in the games room and neither of us had forgotten it. I still wasn't sure whether she was okay with me kissing her or not, she didn't really give me much time to think yesterday.

I smiled at the memory, even if I hadn't spoken to her since. She walked out of the room saying something about going upstairs and as she was walking out her hand brushed past mine, sending shockwaves through my whole body. Sean gave me a very weird look, as if he was trying to work out what was going on. I walked out quickly before his imagination started to run away with him. I went into the kitchen and nearly walked straight into Charles. He gave me a tight smile but I didn't respond.

"Alex, you didn't do anything yesterday, did you?" He asked very hesitantly. I wasn't about to answer that question as I was still a bit angry with him.

"Alex, just because I may have had the wrong motives does not mean you can stay angry at me. I made a mistake, but tell me, what you would have done in that situation." He said sounding a bit hurt. I knew I was probably being a bit harsh with him. If I was honest, I would have probably done the exact same thing in that position. I sighed giving up my fight with him.

"Fine, I won't be angry at you or tell them. " I said. He gave me a very sincere smile.

"Thank you Alex." I thought our conversation was over at that but he continued.

"You must care about her, to get so angry." He said. We both knew why he was saying this to me, he didn't want me to see her but to be honest, and I didn't care. I gave him a smile that said "stay out of it" and walked upstairs. I had to sort things out with Ivy now. I tried to find my old self, the confident and a bit cocky Alex that I was before I came here. I stopped outside her bedroom door, took a deep breath and knocked on the wood.

_Ivy's point of view_

There was a heavy knocking on my bedroom door. I yelled for them to come in. Alex walked in with a hesitant look on his face. I felt blood rush to my cheeks, which seemed to happen a lot when I was around him. I hadn't really said anything to him since yesterday, mostly because I had no idea what to say. He had completely thrown me off (albeit in a good way) I didn't know how to act around him now other than mumble, look down and leave the room. However he gave me a smile that made my knees melt, thank god I was sitting down.

"Um hey." Was all he said.

"What the hell was that yesterday?" I blurted out very quickly, so much for being smooth.

"I mean, why did you kiss me?" I asked a bit calmer. He seemed to almost laugh at my question.

"Because I like you, and I wanted to." He said a bit awkwardly. I got the feeling that he didn't kiss many girls completely randomly often.

That was all I needed to know. I had to know that he felt the same way, that I wasn't just imagining it. I got up from my bed and walked over to him. He knew what I was going to do as he pulled me into his arms at the same time I wrapped mine around his neck and pressed my lips against his in a passionate kiss. His lips weren't soft or gentle like before. It was a rough and messy kiss, more like what I expected from him. Excitement bubbled in my stomach as I suddenly found my back pressed into the wall and his tongue was tracing the shape of my lips. I grinned and sighed with happiness as I pulled him closer…

SMASH

I jumped and broke away in shock to find that the plant pot on my table had smashed to pieces because the plant inside it had grown about five times the size in the space of about a minute. There was dirt and pieces of plant pot all over the floor creating a huge mess.

"Crap!" I muttered and move away from the wall to the scene. Alex bent over and started picking up parts of the pot and throwing them away. I focused on the plant and shrunk it back to its original size. I smiled sheepishly at Alex who was trying not to laugh.

"I'm sorry, when I get too emotional; my mutation sort of gets out of hand." I said a bit lamely. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. I was going to have to sort this out with Charles. I couldn't have the vegetation exploding every time we kissed.

"Its fine I" He started but was interrupted when Hank and Sean walked in the room with panicked looks.

"Are you alright, we heard something smash." Hank asked but stopped short when he saw Alex. I wanted to say something before they started to suspect.

"I was just showing Alex what I've been doing in training and I got a bit carried away." I lied. Alex snorted at the last part, I ignored him. I was usually quite a good liar but Sean and Hank obviously weren't buying it. However we all paid no attention to the lie hanging in the air and they soon left with very suspicious looks on their faces. It hit me that I had no idea what I would say to the others. I knew I probably shouldn't tell them, especially Sam. He was protective at the best of times, God only knows what he would do if he found out about me and Alex. The only possibility left was that we would just have to hide it from everyone, not an easy feat since we were all living under the same roof. Alex sensed that something was wrong with me and turned away from his work.

"You're thinking about telling them aren't you." He stated more than asked really. I loved that about him, he always seemed to know what was troubling me without me saying it.

"I don't know it wouldn't exactly be practical to keep something from all four of them especially not with Charles around."

"Charles can't know. He would kill me he just can't and don't even get me started on Sam." He genuinely looked a bit afraid of telling Charles which I didn't understand. The worst he could do was disapprove of it. He would never dream of chucking us out of the house but that was beside the point.

"Why would Charles have a problem with it anyway?" I asked. Alex looked down so I couldn't see his face. He wasn't telling me something, I could tell. There was no real reason for us not to tell everyone. I was about to ask Alex when Sean ran in again. He was out of breath and looked as if he had run a marathon.

"Alex, they're here."

Alex knew immediately what this meant and started to high-tail it downstairs. I went after him having no clue what was going on while everyone had gathered in the lobby. There were six new people standing there. Charles was shaking hands with a tall man who had brown hair and green eyes. They seemed to be acting friendly enough, but there was something hiding behind all the pleasantries. Like a bad thing happened in the past and neither wanted to bring it up first.

I turned my attention to the rest of the group, a girl who looked as if she had walked out of a strip club, with long tattoos along her arms. There was a tall statuesque woman with blond hair and shockingly pale skin who was standing next to a man who stood there far too arrogantly, and one more woman, hiding in the back as if afraid to take one more step further. She had beautifully rich blue skin, much like Hank's, and cat like, yellow eyes. It was a shock to look at her at first, she looked very striking, but the strangest part about her was the expression she wore. Hurt, anger, regret, pure horror and most of all guilt was marred onto her face as looked directly at Charles. He was trying his best not to look back at her, it was obvious something had happened between those two but I started to focus on Alex standing next to me, with a wary look on his face. Charles led us all into the living room with the newcomers.

I was doing my best not to be freaked out by the second guy that joined us. He looked like some kind of demon straight from a horror movie with his dark red skin and tail, apparently he could teleport. They were all mutants, every one of them. But somehow they were different from us, I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but it was freaking me out. I had settled myself with standing at the back, staying close to Sam. He didn't seem to have the same worries as me; he was fascinated by all of them. He kept trying to chat with the woman who could go all diamond-y; I think her name was Emma.

Instead of listening to their mindless chatter, my eyes found the arrogant guy they called Riptide. He was slowly and purposefully making his way out of the door and into the hallway. He slipped out without anyone noticing. I separated myself from Sam and walked after him. He was treading lightly, obviously not wanting someone to follow him, I was starting to worry. I had never actually found out who these people were or why they were here. Who knows what he could be looking for. He slipped into Charles's study and left the door ajar behind him. I stared through the crack in the door watching him, trying to quiet my breathing. From what I could tell he was looking through a file cabinet, nothing spectacular, until the pulled a file out and started to make for the door. I hid myself, in a panic and it looked like he didn't see me. I ran into the office and went straight to that cabinet. They were files on each of us, probably Charles's way of keeping track on our progress. However one big file was missing and the only two mutants that weren't in that cabinet were Sam and me.

I started to panic. That man came in here for a reason; he didn't just happen across that file. So far there had been no explanation for why these people showed up other than for a visit. I refused to let myself believe that they were here for us. There was no reason why they would want us. No, I told myself I was just being paranoid and pushed it to the back of my mind. As I walked back into the room, the main guy, Erik gave a small nod to Riptide. I had to know who these people were before I spoke to Charles. I wasn't going to let some guy wonder off with a ton of information about us. I pulled Alex into the corridor and he gave me a confused look.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He said softly. There couldn't be any stalling this time, I was finding out who they were.

"Those people in there, who are they, I have to know." I said fiercely feeling my own determination. His face fell, I wasn't giving up, and he seemed to sense that and proceeded to tell me.

"That Erik guy, he is Magneto. He and Charles were best friends and they started recruiting people for the CIA during the missile crisis. That's how we all met. Charles was trying to get society to accept us but Erik didn't want to side with the humans. So eventually they spilt off. Sean, Hank and I went with Charles, Angel and Raven went with Erik. But Charles had just been shot, that's why he's in a wheelchair. That blue woman Raven is his sister; she hasn't seen him since he was shot." He finished. I felt crushed under the onslaught of information. It all made sense, the look on her face, the tension between Erik and Charles and that empty room upstairs. Raven was the little girl that used to live here. No wonder she was shocked to see her brother in a wheelchair. However, this didn't explain why Erik wanted information on Sam, and me.

"Why did you need to know so urgently?" He asked. He hadn't wanted to tell, and I could see why. Something was going to happen between Charles and Erik soon and I'm not sure any of us would want to be caught in the middle of that fight.

"Because Erik is trying to find out about Sam and me." I said, the truth coming out in a rush. I was a bit scared if I was being honest. This man sounded like bad news, I didn't want anything to do with him. Alex and I agreed that we would keep an eye on them, to see if they did anything else, and we walked back in. More suspicious looks met us from Sean and Hank. I didn't care; I had bigger things to worry about.

The rest of the evening was tense to say the least. Raven and Charles had gone into the hallway to talk. I was strange but I felt sorry for her. Even though she chose her path, she had to come to her own home and find her brother in a wheelchair and two new strangers living there. I'm surprised she didn't have a worse reaction.

I decided to walk outside on the terrace to try and get my mind off things. Alex had promised me that he was going to tell Charles what had happened as soon as they were alone, he didn't want to cause a scene in front of the others. I heard footsteps behind me and my eyes were met with Erik. He walked next to me and stuck out his hand.

"I'm Erik, you must be Thorn." He said, smiling at me. It wasn't a friendly smile; it was the kind that I saw a lot on the men back in the circus, the kind that made shudders run down my spine. I shook his hand out of politeness but dropped it after less than a second.

"Ivy, my name's Ivy." I said sharply. I wasn't going to keep up any pretence with this man. He wasn't here just to say hello. I quickly looked back inside, my eyes scanning for Alex but he was talking in the corner with Charles. He wasn't going to save me from this conversation.

"So I've heard some amazing things about your mutation Ivy, I would love to see it one day." He said sweetly.

"Oh, I bet you would." I retorted. I gave him a look that said "I know what you did." He seemed to get the message. He gave up the friendliness and was all business.

"Why are you here?" He asked I had a feeling I knew where this was going. I answered honestly.

"Because I want to be." It was true. Over the past couple of weeks, I had come to love it here. It was the closest thing to home I had ever known.

"You could always come with us. We're not trying to keep false promises like Charles. We're not trying to gain acceptance from people that will always hate us. We're fighting for our freedom." He looked at me with piercing eyes. He wasn't trying to win me over for his moral fight, I knew that. He wanted me because I was powerful. I made sense that he would try to steal that file, how else would he know about me. By this point he had blocked my way back to the house, he was trying to bully me into coming with him.

"You're not scaring me Magneto; I'm not coming with you so why don't you and your friends just run along." I said, he was losing his patience but somehow he managed to keep a poker face on. Sam walked out and saw us then.

"Ivy what's going on?" He asked, glaring at Erik.

"Nothing, Erik was just leaving now." I said firmly. He still didn't back off. I was getting angry now, why couldn't he leave us alone. The trees started to move with anger, rusting their leaves, except there was no wind. Alex appeared too, I stood next to them while they told him to leave.

Everyone started shouting; the others came outside to see what was going on and it became very apparent who's side they were on. Charles was trying to calm everyone down while Alex and Sam were yelling at them to leave. Anger started to build in my chest, why did they have to come and ruin the calm that was here. The whole forest was moving, alive with anger. Vines started to grow from between the tiles on the deck, and Erik noticed. He looked straight at me and smiled. Everyone stopped to notice the change in the atmosphere and Erik spoke first.

"I'll see you soon." He said to all of us. Then he started to walk away with the rest of his team following. My anger was calmed as they left and the forest stopped moving. I turned around to face Sam but not before I caught sight of Ravens face. She had tears in her eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

No one really talked much for the next hour. All of us were forced into silence by the weight of what had happened. I was sitting on the arm rest of the couch with Sam sitting next to me. The others were dotted around the living room and Charles was sitting in the middle. To use the expression "stony faced" while looking at him was the understatement of the century. A horrible mix of anger and disappointment was plastered all over his face and all over the walls. However I couldn't tell if it was disappointment at us, himself, Erik or even Raven. I had a feeling it was a little of all four. Guilt was churning in my stomach. I knew that we hadn't actually done anything wrong, but I still felt the urge to apologize for bringing his sister into it. This silence had gone on long enough.

"I'm sorry Charles. We were out of line to start arguing like that and creating a problem so I'm sorry." My voice had faded out. I hated giving long speeches to people, especially apologies. Sean seemed to have relaxed now that someone had spoken and quickly agreed with my announcement. Charles relaxed now that the tension was broken. I was glad, those emotions didn't suit him.

"I'm sorry for letting it get to that. I think we were all taken by surprise. Erik seems to have changed." He confessed.

"We'll he was certainly keen on finding out what we were doing." Hank said voicing my thoughts. I didn't understand what Erik would need to recruit for. I doubted Charles would get into a war with him, it wasn't his style. The idea that Erik was trying to get to us terrified me. When Alex had said that he used to be a good friend, I couldn't believe it. Erik freaked me out and the thought of him being a good guy was not an easy one to process.

We spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out what he was trying to do and by the end, I was so tired I didn't care. I was sick of mutants and plans and missile crises, I only wanted to sleep. I dragged myself out of the room and plodded down the corridor, dragging my feet. My eyes were half closed when I bumped into Alex. I collided with him just outside my own door. I was too tired to wonder why he was waiting outside of my door. He wrapped his arms around me in a hug.

I have never really been a romantic person; I just liked the idea of it. I used to see lovers walking down streets, hand in hand and I would feel a stabbing feeling in my stomach. I took me a while to realise it was jealousy. However now I had this, part of me hated it. I never wanted to feel this helpless or weak. Like I would do anything he asked me. I had taught myself not to trust, it only ever got you hurt, and somehow I found myself trusting Alex entirely. Now I had managed to throw all of that to the wind and here I was with Alex hiding in the hallway.

"I'm sorry about Erik, your first encounter with him should have been better." He sounded genuinely apologetic, as if he could have stopped it from happening. Truthfully, I had briefly forgotten about Erik due to the close proximity of Alex's body. I got a grip on myself and answered.

"Yeah, I kind of wish I could have known him as you did, but you have nothing to be sorry for." He muttered the words "I still am" and pressed his lips against mine. It wasn't a gentle kiss or a fiery one. It was just a kiss, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and to me it was. The sane part of my mind was yelling at the rest of it though. I was going to have to talk to him about it. I knew realistically we couldn't just go on waiting to meet each other in corridors so we can make out. I managed (somehow) to pull away from his addictive lips.

"Alex, what is going on here? I thought we agreed that we would never be able to hide this from everyone." It felt like I was sort of pleading with him. He looked annoyed at me for bringing it up again.

"Okay first of all, Hank has probably never had to hide this kind of thing from anyone, so he won't know what to look for." He said.

"Don't be mean to Hank, he's your friend." He ignored my comment.

"Second of all, Sam is too occupied with his new training to notice anything else, and thirdly it is not the hardest thing in the world to hide something from Sean. He isn't that intuitive." He listed.

"You are a lovely friend if I haven't said so before." I said sarcastically. He just chuckled and inched closer to my face.

"I'm not going to let three guys stop us from being together." He whispered kissing the side of my mouth and I laid all my trust with him again.

I wanted to ask if we were together but the question was lost as I found myself nodding before his warm lips met mine.

I spent that entire night tossing around my bed. I couldn't settle with thoughts stabbing at my brain, thoughts of their visit, of kisses in the hallway, of my brother and of Raven. It wasn't a good night.

A screeching noise filled the air followed by two huge panes of glass shattering all over the lawn and an exasperated sigh from Sean. I removed those God-awful headphones from my head and tried to comfort him.

"Don't worry you will get it." I reassured. I was impressed that he hadn't given up yet. I think that was what I admired most about Sean, his determination. He was trying to catch to the right frequency to smash one sheet of glass but not the other. So far he had not had any luck. Charles wheeled himself over to us and started to give Sean advice before turning to me.

"Aren't you supposed to be training yourself Ivy?" He stated rather than asked.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." I mumbled and walked round the house to where the forest met the lawn. I had abandoned my training for the afternoon, I was getting tired out. As I approached I saw a figure running towards me, it was Sam.

"You are not going to believe what just happened." I said red in the face.

"You were actually running for something. Yeah, that is hard to believe." I remarked.

"Oh hilarious, no look at this." He said his eyes ablaze with excitement. He grabbed my hand and bent over it concentrating. I stared in horror as my hand slowly began to fade from my sight. It became completely invisible along with Sam. He returned everything back to normal and smiled at me.

"I have never done that before, Ivy. I was just training and it happened. I have no idea how I wasn't even trying." He was babbling with energy like a kid on Christmas at his new development in his power. He ran off to tell Charles and I felt a wave of sadness wash over me. Sam and I used to be joined at the hip; we had spent our whole life that way. I hadn't really spoken to him in weeks. We had been forced apart by this place. I couldn't say it though, I couldn't even think it. God only knows where we would be without the mansion; I wouldn't let myself be anything but grateful. But I felt only the ghost of my old brother now; in his place was some strange different person. I knew that he preferred the way we were now but I couldn't help but long for the person that wouldn't go anywhere without me, the person that thought it was only going to be us two together forever. I guess that was the price I had to pay to be here, to be happy here.

I walked to my favourite spot for training, completely not in the mood. I tried to find the energy inside me to try what I was doing before. I pressed my back against a tree and felt for life that was flowing through it. I felt it intertwine with other trees and the invisible network in the forest. My back started to mould with tree pushing me into it. I couldn't get it to give way any more than it did and I fell to the ground out of breath. I tried the same thing with my hands, pushing them to the ground. They turned the same colour as the grass beneath them and I pushed them a few more centimetres into the earth before I gave up. I had discovered yesterday that if I focused hard enough, I could hide inside the earth around me. Charles said to try it; it might be useful one day.

I sensed someone's eyes on me and I faced Alex. Blood rushed to my cheeks and blood pounded in my veins as he got closer. He gave me a peck on the lips. It still amazed me how even just that could send adrenalin through me.

"How's it going?" He asked, wrapping his arms around me after checking if anyone was watching us.

"Not so good." I said "Have you seen Sam?" I asked. I wanted to know what Charles would say to him.

"Yeah I was talking to Charles when he ran in. Hank is looking over him now." He said.

"Why were you talking to Charles?" I asked. He hesitated and I sensed it was a touchy subject. I gave him a look that said "you can trust me" and he caved.

"He wanted me to call my brother." I was surprised by that. I had no idea Alex had a brother let alone that Charles wanted to get in touch with him.

"Oh" was all I could say. When Alex had said that he was in prison, it was all I could imagine in his past. Nothing could have been before that, the fact that he may have had a family never crossed my mind. However I couldn't see him anywhere but here. He fit perfectly into the life that had been created in this mansion; we were the only family I could picture him with.

"I didn't know you had a brother," He was acting like it didn't bother him. He was putting up that bad boy façade as if nothing in the world mattered.

"Yeah but he lives with a different foster family than mine." He was just throwing the surprises at me.

"Why did he live with a different family?" I asked. I had leaned in and I realised I was being very intrusive. It wasn't my business.

"Sorry, I won't bring it up again." I promised. However I could see it on his face. The need to tell someone, to have them listen to the story. That wall that he had put up before crumbled on his face and he gave up.

"My brother, Scott, and I were put into foster care when we were young, we went to different families. We were really close for years but could never see each other, but over the last couple of years we didn't talk as much. When I was seventeen and he was thirteen some guy was trying to hurt my foster sister. I cornered him one evening and told him to back off. We started fighting and I lost it. His whole car was destroyed along with him. I couldn't take the guilt so I turned myself in. My family didn't visit me after I was put in prison. But I did call Scott once. He just asked me if I had meant to do it, I said no. I haven't spoken to him since." He is looking down by the time he is done. About halfway through the story, I had realised that he had never really told anyone this, except maybe Charles. Alex rarely let anyone into his world to see it with their own eyes. I remembered the first day I saw him. His eyes were a deep blue that looked so lonely. Now I knew why. I didn't really know what to say to him.

"I'm sorry." Was all I could think of.

"You didn't do anything." He simply replied.

"But Charles wants you to call him."

"He wants me to talk to him again. Scott is the only person left of my actual family. Charles thinks he deserves to know where I am." He admitted.

"Are you going to call him?" I asked.

"I can't see how it would make anything better. He probably still wouldn't forgive me." He said. I thought momentarily of that guy that had died. Did he have a life, a family? Was Alex the one that took it all away?

"Do you forgive yourself?" I asked. He looked right into my eyes and pierced my soul with that look. He had never looked at me like that before.

"I'm getting there." I said. He wasn't going to say any more about it. I don't know if I really wanted to hear any more. It was a lot to swallow. I turned back to my training and worked on growing new trees by the edge of the forest. He sat down a couple of metres from me, falling into an easy silence.

"What about you, where is your family?" He asked. I stopped dead, my training forgotten. I had done my utmost to avoid this conversation with anyone, even Sam. Every time it came up, there was an ache in my stomach that churned, it made me feel uneasy.

"My family is here." I said sidestepping the question. Alex, however, wasn't falling for it.

"No, I mean your real family." I looked back at him. He looked completely different to me now. Like an old picture that had a layer of dust on it, but that layer had now been blown away and that picture was in perfect clarity. I wondered what I looked like to him. If I looked like that picture, like an unfinished drawing. I felt my own wall tumbling down as I told him.

"I lived with my mum in Paris until I was eleven years old. That was when my mutation started to show up. Weird things started happening around me. We never spoke about it but we both knew something was wrong. We were having problems with money and she couldn't find a job. It eventually became too much for her and she took me on a plane to Egypt, she said we were visiting some family that lived there. She left me at the airport. I ran into Sam there. We went looking for the family that she talked about but there was no one. I have been with him since." My voice was slightly trembling by the end. Alex had gone very quiet by the end, but I couldn't see him anymore. I was in an airport, wandering around, looking for her, fear rising in my stomach. I was staring into warm brown eyes, Sam's eyes, for the first time. I was smiling in wonder and fear at a plant that had grown just because I thought about it. I was opening a book I had been reading on the plane, only to find a letter from my mother in the cover, tears staining the paper, washing away the words. All these pieces of my life that I had sewn together like a patchwork quilt, trying to make a whole were flashing in my mind. There was a hollow place in my heart that was caving in on itself, by forgetting my past; I had managed to keep it standing.

I was pushed out of my thoughts by Alex's heavy breathing. I looked at him realising that we were all like this. We had messy, horrible secrets that we would all rather forget. I put my own out of my head and did what I did best, forgot. Alex got up and gave me a quick hug, knowing not to say anything.

"Let' go inside." He said. A secret agreement was presented in his eyes. We would not to talk about it again.

"Sure." I said to both. I felt my bracelet fall from my wrist. As I went to pick it up, something happened that made my mouth drop open. It went straight, by itself, into my outstretched hand. I turned to Alex who had a bewildered look on his face. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't just done that, had I?

"That's new."

**A/N: Sorry I haven't been updating recently, its because I'm on holiday and I will give anyone a lot of money to get connection here ;) **

**I wanted to give Ivy a bit more of a back-story for this; I think it explains a bit more about her. I put in Alex's story just because I love him (who doesn't?) and I wanted to introduce Scott into his life. I don't know what ages the people are in the movie but for the sake of this**

**Alex: 18 Hank: 18 Sean: 16 Sam: 18 Ivy: 17 Charles: 25 Raven: 19 **

**Pretty, pretty please review. I don't know what is good or bad about the story. Suggestions for future chapters are welcome. **

**Disclaimer: I own (lie detector bleeping) forget that, I don't own.**

**Peace out xxxxxx **


	10. Chapter 10

_Alex's point of view._

"So what is it exactly?" I asked after Hank finished stumbling over an explanation with a lot of scientific words. Charles was nodding along with him and Ivy was sitting on some kind of hospital bed staring at Hank like she wanted to throttle him. I didn't blame her. She went into a full panic after she moved her bracelet with her own mind, we ran to Charles and Hank and they took a blood sample, which she clearly did not enjoy. A full two hours and three more tests later, we still had no idea how she did it. Hank opened his mouth to start explaining again when Charles cut him off.

"We think you may have an undeveloped form of telekinesis." Charles said simply. Ivy stopped staring at Hank like she was ready to kill him and turned her death glare to Charles instead.

My mind shot back to Magneto and their visit. He was already pretty determined to get Ivy and Sam on his side. I didn't want to think about the measures he might take if he found out their powers were only developing. I looked back to her. A shocked look had spread across her face but was quickly replaced by fear. Whether it was fear of Magneto or of herself, I couldn't tell.

Her hands loosened on the side of the bed while her whole body seemed to deflate of all the tension. Ivy let her eyes fall to the floor, her head hung low so we couldn't really see her face. Her frame seemed crushed by the weight of what had been announced. She looked as if she wanted to say a million different things but her mind was blocked and she couldn't say any of them. I didn't know what to think, what to say to her. I had no idea you could develop more mutations let alone ones that were completely different from your original.

I felt my own sinking feeling settle inside my stomach. Ivy, who was always strong, never took any crap from anyone and certainly never let anyone see any weakness, was crying. Streams of angry tears stained her cheeks and fell onto her jeans from her closed eyes. She's wasn't one to accept defeat or admit to being vulnerable, so I wasn't really surprised when the only thing she did was walk out without saying anything. My heart dropped at the sight of her that broken, something I hadn't seen since she first arrived weeks ago. The volume in the room went down until I could hear Charles and Hank's breathing. I didn't notice my feet moving, walking after her, trying to stop her from being in pain. The longing to go after her was new to me; I had never felt such an intense pull towards someone before. Charles stopped me before I could get too far in going after her or in my thoughts.

"Actually Alex, I think it's best if I talk to her, if you don't mind." He said with a frown stretching over his face.

"Okay, doesn't really make a difference to me." I shrugged, trying to look indifferent and failing miserably in the eyes of Charles. He wheeled out of the room after her and that was the moment Hank decided to interrupt.

"Well, I imagine that she is very upset, probably confused too. I mean it's not every day that…." Hank shut up the minute I gave him a glare that said I wasn't in the mood.

I had my problems with Hank ever since the day I met him. He was a huge bag of nerves that annoyed everyone with no balls to do anything. He would just stutter over his words and never look anyone in the eye. I knew that he was probably a nice guy and I was maybe a bit too harsh with him sometimes. But with no guts to stand up for himself, he had to get it one way or the other. When he turned up to the jet completely blue from head to toe, part of me secretly hoped he would develop some kind of desire to fight with it. Instead he let Raven completely slip through his fingers. I couldn't let that happen to Ivy.

"I'm going to find Banshee." I said just to get away from Hank before I said something I would regret, again.

_Ivy's point of view_

I couldn't really see much through the film of salt water that was clouding my eyes. My tears were blocking me from sight, protecting me from what I had just heard. I didn't really know where I was going until, after taking three left turns I wound up in the library with someone waiting for me.

It was a strange thing to have someone inside your head. It was as if you had arranged a stack of files about your life in neat rows and a gust of wind blows them all in disarray, letting the whole world see. Charles was sifting through my files now, glancing over them, thinking I couldn't feel it; that invasion of privacy.

"It is true; I rarely am caught on the receiving end of telepathy." He stated.

"How did you get here before I did?" I asked through my pathetic tears. I had forgotten I was crying until that moment. Tears were unnecessary, just a waste of water, a white flag to let someone know they succeeded in hurting you.

"There's a shortcut through the kitchen." Of course there was.

"Why are you afraid of yourself Ivy?" He asked as if he was asking me what I had for breakfast. My instant reaction was to deny what he was saying, to keep up my charade of the girl that could take anything. I soon realised that the tear tracks on my cheeks were going to be pretty hard to argue around.

"When people use all their efforts to stay away from you, you start to wonder why." I shot back at him. He wouldn't understand I knew that. Charles was a leader, a being that everyone seemed to draw to like moths to a flame. I doubt he had ever been alone in his life.

"Not here Ivy, no one fears you here, there is nothing wrong with you." He pleaded to make me see his vision. I thought I could when I arrived here, but now the picture is blurred, not as black and white.

"If there is nothing wrong with me, then why is he following us?" We both knew who I was talking about. That visit was fresh in everyone's minds and put unspoken fear in the air.

"I can't pretend to know why, but I promise I will find out, you will be safe here, I will do upmost to guarantee it." I knew he would try; Charles always would do his best for us. But I knew that he couldn't keep Magneto at bay for ever. He was going to get to us at some point; it was just a matter of when. I felt the most obvious question trying to force its way past my lips, begging for some kind of answer.

"What am I doing here Charles, what's the difference if I am with him or with you." He seemed surprised by my question but not shocked, like he was waiting for me to ask him, he just wanted more time to find an answer. However there was something behind the kind exterior, a secret that he couldn't say just yet. I couldn't find an answer or that secret anywhere and that sent a shock of panic through me. That he either had no idea what I was doing there, or he just wouldn't tell me.

Charles lead me out of the library and back through the kitchen. I was suddenly aware of everything in the room, the cutlery, the pots and pans, the lights and tiles in the floors. The temptation to reach my mind out and lift everything into the air was hard to resist. I had no idea how Charles didn't give in and read our minds every day. It was an odd sensation, like I had a dead led that I had to drag around everywhere, and suddenly the blood was flowing again and I could move. Maybe I could get to know that new part of myself, maybe I didn't have to waste useless tears on it.

"Alex was worried about you." Charles gave me a sideways look. I blushed furiously and looked down. By the very pregnant pause in the room, I knew Charles had found out. I was going to say something, anything, when a huge knock sounded throughout the house coming from the main door. I froze on the spot as did Charles. Banshee was watching television and Sam was out practicing. Alex and Hank were probably killing each other in the lab. So who could be at the door?

Charles and I walked with care towards the door, as if a harsh movement was going to unleash something horrible on us. Charles opened the door with calculated caution to reveal a girl standing behind it. She looked about sixteen with Barbie like blonde hair cropped short and a baby face to match. She was carrying a bulky overnight bag; I was surprised she had even managed to carry it. She looked like the she had all the strength of a matchstick and she had a look of almost smugness when she saw our downright shocked expressions.

"You must be the mutants."

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, holidays and all. So I changed the title and the summary of this story after reading them and realising how bad they were. **

**I want to thank everyone who has reviewed or added to their alerts or favourites, it really means a lot. **

**Disclaimer: (I'm going to get old writing these) I don't own. **

**Please review, peace out xxxx**


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